Print Issue: June 20, 2002

'Nice Going' - A Life Of Friendship, Gentleness Remembered As Dom Augustine Moore Is Buried

By Rebecca Rakoczy

CONYERS - Dom Augustine "Gus" Moore was laid to rest June 8 in the manner countless other monks had been buried before him: simply and with joy. He died June 5 at age 90.

Under soft gray skies of midmorning, the monks of the Cistercian order at Our Lady of Holy Spirit Abbey buried Dom Augustine in the small, secluded graveyard behind the abbey where he had resided for almost a half-century. As is the tradition here, his body was transported from the church directly to the burial site in a plain wood casket.

Gently wrapped by his fellow monks in a cloth shroud, he was lifted directly from the casket and lowered into the deep hole that had been dug. There was no coffin; only the red Georgia clay surrounded his body.

Then, led by Father Anthony Delisi, OCSO, each man known to each other as "brother" took turns putting a shovel of dirt over his body, as a simple a capella hymn was sung. They continued, until the cloth shroud was no longer visible. Afterward, those gathered to pay respects to the life of Dom Augustine slowly processed by, each throwing a handful of dirt into the opening.

When the procession stopped, the monks shed their long habits. Clad in work clothes and boots they vigorously shoveled the remainder of the earth over the body.

The simplicity and beauty of the burial ceremony echoed the life of Dom Augustine, who was eulogized as a "friend and father" by another of the abbey's retired abbots, Dom Bernard Johnson, OCSO, and by the current superior, Father Anthony, in a Mass prior to the graveside burial service.

"We are here today to celebrate the Christian burial of a wonderful human being," said Dom Bernard during the homily.

He compared Dom Augustine's approach to life to that of two different popular authors: Emily Post, who wrote "The Art of Gracious Living," and Dale Carnegie's tome, "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

"I have from time to time thought that maybe Dom Augustine's ghost wrote those books or at least he inspired them. Because Dom Augustine really was an artist in gracious living," he said. "Dom Augustine was always a gentleman. Always. Even when you didn't agree with him . . . he knew how to make and to keep friends, to cultivate friendship and make it last."

Known for his quick wit and graciousness, Dom Augustine's favorite saying was "nice going," said Dom Bernard. "No matter what you did. If you cooked a good meal, if you preached a terrible homily, he would say, 'nice going.'"

A native of Louisville, Ky., Frederick Moore joined the diocesan priesthood in the 1930s, and entered Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky in 1942, becoming a solemn professed monk after serving as a parish priest in Louisville.

He was one of the first monks sent to Conyers when the new monastic foundation was made from Gethsemani. He helped build the imposing stone church of Holy Spirit Abbey and served as abbot for 26 years, from 1957 to 1983. Upon his "retirement," Dom Augustine spent years directing retreats and giving homilies and talks. In the process, he garnered many friends and admirers. "Within the Heart of Mary," a collection of his writings, was published by the monks in December for his 90th birthday.

Rocky Thomas Haven was baptized by Dom Augustine as a child in Kentucky; her parents kept a photo of the priest in her scrapbook. They followed his career as a monk, then abbot, she said.

It was serendipity more than 50 years later, while browsing in an Orlando, Fla., bookstore looking at books by Thomas Merton, also a monk at Gethsemani, that Haven struck up a conversation with a stranger who knew Dom Augustine. She drove up that week to meet the man she knew only by photo. The two developed a cordial correspondence and friendship.

"He would send letters, 'Dear BIB,'" said Haven. "BIB stood for 'baby I baptized.'" It was a joke between the two that transcended time. Haven and her husband became active participants in retreats at the monastery.

"I am so grateful for the past six years I had knowing him. He was such a pistol."

Robert Voight was a pre-teen when he met Dom Augustine in 1961, when he was engineering the construction of an addition to the abbey.

"My father was the roofer of this old building," Voight said. "We came here as a family every week."

As a teenager, Voight worked in the monastery gardens. When his father died suddenly, Dom Augustine became the father figure in his life, he said.

"He was kind, and a friend and an example for all of us . . . He taught me as a young abbot," said Dom Timothy Kelly, who attended the funeral from California.

Father Francis Xavier Kavanaugh, OCSO, who at 90 was Dom Augustine's peer, remembers pouring the cement bricks for the monastery almost 50 years ago. The monastery was a "pine barn" until 1962, and the church was the last thing they built. "It took nine years to build," Father Francis said.

Despite his monastic status, Dom Augustine also was active in his community. Father Francis recalled his role as a firefighter in the then largely rural Conyers.

"The only water tower in the area was on the monastery property," said Father Francis. And he was the volunteer fire chief. When there was fire, the local people would call the monastery "and he would help put the fires out."

Frederick Moore Dugan, a nephew, was his namesake before he took the monastic name of St. Augustine. Dugan said of his uncle, "He was so much fun and so down to earth. He never met a stranger and was a friend to everybody."

Father Dick Morrow, a priest of the archdiocese for 47 years, who helped concelebrate the Mass, said Dom Augustine, while an abbot and monk, "understood the parish priest's life as well" and was "a great friend" to the priests of the archdiocese.

"I met him in 1955 on my first visit to the monastery as a priest," Father Morrow said. "I go there on retreat every year and I always made it a point to see him, always raising with him any questions I had about spiritual direction. He'll be missed."